If something like that does happen, it will be a huge financial shot in the arm for Canonical, but to bank on it would be foolish. Canonical isn’t waiting for the proceeds from all those expected shipments to (pleasantly) inundate its coffers, though. In the meantime, it is going to rely on Amazon affiliate commissions to supplement its income.

Back in October, Canonical shared its vision for the future of Ubuntu at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Orlando. It’s a strategy that will see Ubuntu venture beyond PCs with a fair amount of abandon. According to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, the company plans to put Ubuntu on tablets, phones, TVs and other “smart screens” by 14.04 LTS. The Linux distro vendor seems to be on track with those plans, having managed to get an Ubuntu TV prototype ready in time for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

A day after the world’s most popular desktop Linux distro turned seven, Canonical announced a new support policy for its LTS (long-term support) releases, which are released every two years. Beginning with the release of Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) in April, 2012, Canonical will support LTS releases for desktops users for five years instead of the current three years.

Coming up with placeholder names for upcoming Ubuntu releases is an exercise in celebration of our rock’s biodiversity. It therefore carries great responsibility. Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth, though, seems to relish this challenge. Last week, he announced the code name of the next Ubuntu LTS (long term) release, which is scheduled for next April. Using its time-honored adjective-animal naming convention, Canonical has arrived at the name “Precise Pangolin” for Ubuntu 12.04.

Dropbox and SugarSync snatch up all the headlines, but they aren’t the only cloud storage solution in town; for the past few years, Linux lovers looking to access their files on the run could turn to Ubuntu One, a service offered by Canonical, the private company that provides commercial backbone for Ubuntu Linux. There was one small problem, though; Ubuntu One only worked on Linux computers, which kind of sucks when you remember that, you know, most computers run Microsoft operating systems. All that changed last night with the launch of an Ubuntu One Windows client.

Canonical hasn't been bashful about backing ARM, injecting support for the alternative processor into its desktop Ubuntu platform nearly three years ago before tablets and 1GHz smartphones made ARM the talk of the town. Now comes word that Ubuntu Server 11.10 will support ARM processors and ship simultaneously with x86 and x86-64 platforms.

You know that cute old couple down the street, the two that have been married since before your parents were born? Firefox and Ubuntu are kind of like that. It's hard to remember a time when you could find one without the other. But are the browser and the operating system experiencing irreconcilable differences? Any conservative radio host can tell you that the divorce rate is sky-high in America, and the Ubuntu team's considering tossing Firefox to the curb and chasing some hot young Chrome tail.

The decision was taken following a rift between Canonical and GNOME over certain design issues. "We were part of the GNOME shell design discussion, we put forward our views and they were not embraced by designers," Shuttleworth said at the ongoing Ubuntu Developer Summit.

"We took a divergent view from the GNOME shell folks on key design issues, for example how application menus should appear on the system, how one should search to find applications, [and] how one's favorite applications should be presented."

However, users will be allowed to install GNOME through Ubuntu’s software installation program. Natty Narwhal is scheduled to be released in April, 2011.

It’s the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year, and the folks over at Canonical have released Ubuntu 10.10. Coincidence? We think not. Clever marketing aside the new OS release offers up a custom Unity desktop interface optimized for lower resolution netbooks, 2GB of free online storage, and even multi-touch support if you have the right hardware. An interesting new revenue approach is also being explored this time around which will introduce paid support options, along with the ability to stream music to Android and iPhone devices for a nominal fee.

The early reviews are starting to come in and it sounds like Maverick Meerkat is a worthy successor for anyone who’s been waiting to give Linux a try. The CD sized ISO can be downloaded directly from the Ubuntu homepage, or you can fire up your favorite torrent app and help carry the load. That is why you installed uTorrent after all isn’t it? Don’t forget if you’re not the adventurous type you can always use that ISO to give the OS a try without installing, or even have it configure a multi boot to run side by side with your copy of Windows.

Have you given 10.10 a try? If so give us your impressions after the jump.

The next iteration of Ubuntu will accommodate Canonical's UTouch framework, making it the first version of the world's most popular linux distro to feature multitouch support. Codenamed Maverick Meerkat, Ubuntu version 10.10 is scheduled for release on October 10, 2010. According to a post on Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth's official blog, at least a four-finger touch device is needed “to get the most out of it.”

He also revealed that Canonical is developing the new feature using the Dell Latitude XT2 as its development platform. “The design team has lead the way, developing a “touch language” which goes beyond the work that we’ve seen elsewhere. Rather than single, magic gestures, we’re making it possible for basic gestures to be chained, or composed, into more sophisticated 'sentences,'” the South African entrepreneur wrote in a blog post Monday.

“The basic gestures, or primitives, are like individual verbs, and stringing them together allows for richer interactions. It’s not quite the difference between banging rocks together and conducting a symphony orchestra, but it feels like a good step in the right direction.”